Roughly double the amount NOAA provided last year, the boost is partly the result of President Barack Obama’s executive order to clean up the bay, said Peyton Robertson, director of the agency’s Chesapeake Bay office.

NOAA has awarded fisheries grants since the 1980s. It opted to highlight this year’s research to draw attention to the bay and the work being done to protect it, said Andrew Larkin, a Norfolk-based NOAA spokesman.